Distortion 7: Marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to heroin and cocaine addiction.

False. The ‘gateway’ claim is a myth. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug so it is very likely that people who use less commonly-used drugs will have also tried marijuana. That does not mean marijuana led to hard drug use. The research indicates most marijuana users do not go onto use hard drugs; marijuana is more properly viewed as a strainer that catches most illicit drug users and they go no further. The numbers bear out these findings: According to the federal government 76.3 million people have tried marijuana, while only 2.78 million have ever tried heroin in their lifetimes and only 5.3 million have ever tried cocaine in their lives. The figures for monthly use are similar: 10.7 million Americans admit to being regular marijuana users, yet only 1.2 million admit to using cocaine each month - 1 for every 9 marijuana users - and 130,000 people use heroin monthly, or 1 for every 80 regular marijuana users.

The Journal of the American Medical Association features an article
on 'gateway theory' in its Jan. 22/29, 2003 edition.
According to the article,
"Early Onset of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users
vs. Co-twin Controls,"
"
While the findings of this study indicate that early cannabis
use is associated with increased risks of progression to other
illicit drug use and drug abuse/dependence, it is not
possible to draw strong causal conclusions solely on the basis
of the associations shown in this study."

Indeed, according to the study's authors:
"Other mechanisms that might mediate a causal association
between early cannabis use and subsequent drug use and drug
abuse/dependence include the following:
"1. Initial experiences with cannabis, which are frequently
rated as pleasurable, may encourage continued use of cannabis and
also broader experimentation.
"2. Seemingly safe early experiences with cannabis may
reduce the perceived risk of, and therefore barriers to, the use
of other drugs. For example, as the vast majority of those who
use cannabis do not experience any legal consequences of their
use, such use may act to diminish the strength of legal sanctions
against the use of all drugs.
"3. Alternatively, experience with and subsequent access
to cannabis use may provide individuals with access to other
drugs as they come into contact with drug dealers. This argument
provided a strong impetus for the Netherlands to effectively
decriminalize cannabis use in an attempt to separate cannabis
from the hard drug market. This strategy may have been partially
successful as rates of cocaine use among those who have used
cannabis are lower in the Netherlands than in the United
States."
(Emphasis above added by CSDP Webmaster.)

Indeed, rather than cannabis, the research seems to point to
early use of tobacco or alcohol as more of a predictor of
later use of other drugs and of later problem drug use. The
report notes that
"While covariates differed between equations, early regular
use of tobacco and alcohol emerged as the 2 factors most
consistently associated with later illicit drug use and
abuse/dependence. While early regular alcohol use did not
emerge as a significant independent predictor of alcohol
dependence, this finding should be treated with considerable
caution, as our study did not provide an optimal strategy for
assessing the effects of early alcohol use."

"Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana - usually before they are of legal age."